US retail giant Best Buy has apologised to Heath Ledger's family and fans after one of the firm’s employees erected a makeshift movie display in memory of the Brokeback Mountain star.
Just a day after the world learned of the sudden death of the Australian actor, who was found dead in his New York apartment earlier this week, …

Simpsons

True, true

It's absolutely true that death sells, probably far better than sex sells in fact, however it's normally the public who go and find whatever it is they want from the celeb/artist following their demise (albeit with a *little* "help" from the marketeers) rather than bending to what could be seen as completely un-subtle, distasteful attempts by companies to shove their stock onto customers.

The "staffer" probably was a fan of Ledger but should have kept the tribute to the confines of their own home/DVD player as opposed to using their position within a company to say what customers *will* want to do so brazenly with a sign and everything...

Kurt Cobain

I remember after the suicide of Kurt Cobain wandering into my local HMV to see huge displays of everything to do with Nirvana.

I spoke to the store manager and even a couple of people at their head office and they were frankly astounded that anyone could think that their attempts to sell product were anything less than the best possible taste.

Reverse psychology?

Maybe Best Buy told the staffer to build the shrine just so they could dismantle it and receive some publicity for "doing the right thing." Perhaps someone hearing that Best Buy doesn't want to profit from his death in bad taste will then shop at Best Buy because they are not an evil corporation (today anyway). Paranoid? Maybe, but it doesn't mean everyones not out to get me.

HMV website too

I also found the HMV website in bad taste, blatantly attempting to cash in on this tragic death. After a small tribute to Heath Ledger they have kindly compiled a list of his films for sale. Shame on you HMV!

@Question

Hmmm,

Hm...

"One could easily view this as an attempt to profit from Mr. Ledger's death"

Which it surely was. And hoping to get a promotion out of it when the cunning plan generated a lot of sales, I'd suspect. And so what? That's what they all do all the time... Maybe in slightly subtler ways, which does not change anything.